Do you have the POWER? We're now in the Power Harvesting Module Challenge of the Hackaday Prize! Power's around us everywhere. It's up to you to harvest it and achieve ULTIMATE POWER.

This is the 3rd round of the Hackaday Prize, which means we have two under our belt and two more to go after this one. We thought you might have some questions!

What makes a winning entry?

How can you get publicity for your project?

Want to bounce your project ideas off the community?

What's the story behind the seed funding confusion that occurred?

Find out this and more in the Hack Chat!

Stephen Tranovich is co-ordinating this year's Hackaday Prize. They've used their background in EE and Physics primarily to build LED installations, make noise circuits their housemates definitely don't want to hear, and foster community among creators in the world.

Event Logs

Stephen Tranovich12:08 PMCool, let's get rolling! This hack chat is going to be more of a community discussion around Prize entries, unique ways of energy harvesting, and anything else about the Prize.

Orlando Hoilett12:09 PMIt's kind of a neat way to do power and communication. I've seen some groups that send data over the headphone jack as well.

Kris Winer12:09 PMOK, then can you tell us why was Power Harvesting chosen as one of the categories?

Stephen Tranovich12:09 PMI spend a lot of my days running logistics for the prize and talking with individuals about how to get their entries to be epic. So I'm excited to answer any questions!

ziggurat2912:10 PMHow are prize categories for the year created? Is there any community input on, say, 'categories for 2019'?

Stephen Tranovich12:11 PM@Kris Winer Yes, the Power Harvesting Module Challenge was chosen because energy consumption is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity at the moment.

Stephen Tranovich12:11 PMThis is an area electrical engineers and makers can really use our skills to aid with

ðeshipu12:12 PMthere should be a "ironic man" achievement for energy-saving achievements being sold for bitcoin :D

Orlando Hoilett12:13 PMI think the vast majority of power harvesting entries might focus on solar energy and thermal electric generators. These have somewhat been exhausted in the DIY community, to some extent. I'm interested to see what new things people come up with. I think something that hasn't been quite tapped into is using people's sweat to make a battery and power some sort of wearable.

Stephen Tranovich12:13 PMWe specifically chose modules because we wanted projects to focus on design pieces that can be used in a variety of applications moving forward. Hopefully these projects can be used in future projects that may have otherwise been powered with traditional means

Kris Winer12:14 PMI'm looking forward to seeing some of the more innovative ideas; my project is just using an off-the-shelf IC to harvest power from a solar cell. The small sized form factor is unique but it isn't something anyone else couldn't do...

Frank Buss12:15 PMdon't know if it helps with energy consumption. Millions of micropower devices need as much power as one air conditioner

Frank Buss12:16 PMthe bitcoin proof-of-work algorithm is outdated, people should use more modern coins, like Waves with proof-of-stake

Kris Winer12:16 PMI have designed a bunch of different kinds of environmental sensors using either wifi, BLE or LoRa and combinations thereof. wifi is nearly impossible to power with a solar cell. BLE is the best match here. LoRa is so power efficient is doesn't really need power harvesting.

Kris Winer12:18 PMPlus where I am, I get ~6 hours of direct sun a day, so with a small solar cell that is ~40 mA per day, this is the power budget for any kind of remote sensor device arounf my house.

Stephen Tranovich12:18 PMUnless you wanted to power LoRa with a pushbutton or piezoelectrics triggered by rain. Batteryless electronics is really interesting.

ðeshipu12:19 PMin most of EU you can use the rainwater with two electrodes as a battery :P

Stephen Tranovich12:19 PMI am so excited about more unique and ingenious methods of power harvesting,. That is what I really want to see - ways of taking power from unlikely places and being used.